Manila Mayor Joseph Ejercito Estrada will lead
the opening ceremony of The Day of Seafarers Expo tomorrow, June 22, 2015 at
the Luneta Seafarers Welfare Foundation
(LUSWELF) Center.

The Day of Seafarers Expo is a
business event that celebrates the International Day of Seafarers established
by the International Maritime
Organization (IMO).

The Day of Seafarers Expo runs
from June 22 to June 25, 2015 in two locations, from June 22-25 at LUSWELF
Center, and June 25, 2015 at Palacio De Manila.

The Day of Seafarers is
celebrated all over the world, it is an event that puts in the center the
importance of Seafarers in the different economic and lifestyle aspects of the
society. In addition, the celebration emphasizes the career opportunities one
can have in the seas and ashore.

The Day of Seafarers Expo gives
exposure to seafarers’ different business and livelihood opportunities that
they can have. Also, the expo offers different products and services that
seafarers can use as part of their daily needs.

Another highlight of the expo is the first Marino Idol Competition. Seafarer
candidates will get a chance to show their talents and capabilities in this
competition. The winners will have cash prizes and fabulous giveaways.

More so, several games, activities and forum
await the visiting and participating seafarers.

The event is a partnership of LUSWELF, United Filipino Seafarers (UFS) and
Exlinkevents – business events
organizer of the Philippines.

The event is supported by UNTV and Tinig ng
Marino. For more information for partnerships and activities call 643-3887 or
0920-9814376.

In celebration of the Day of Seafarers this coming June 25,
2015, an expo offers business and livelihood opportunities will be held at the
Luneta Seafarers’ Welfare Foundation Inc. (LUSWELF) and Palacio De Manila.

The Day of Seafarers Expo starts from June 22 – 25, 2015 at LUSWELF and
Palacio De Manila.

The Day of Seafarers is an international event celebrated all over the
world, and spearheaded by the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

This year IMO is campaigning to show
how the multi-faceted maritime world offers a series of rich and fulfilling
career opportunities for your people, both at sea and ashore.

According to
Wikipedia, there are around 280,000 students who graduate from maritime schools
every year.In 1996, it was
estimated that there were more than 250,000 Filipino seafarers; in 2013, that
number has been estimated to increase to about 460,000. Filipinos employed as
seamen worldwide, more than any other nationality. The Philippines is one of
the primary sources of seamen in the global shipping and transport market.
Filipino seamen are often recruited to man tankers and sea vessels from
countries, including those fromDenmark,North America,South America,EuropeandAsia, such asJapan, theUnited States,Panama,Liberia,Cyprus,Bahamas,Jamaica, Greece,Malta,Singapore,Norwayand theRepublic of Germany.

According to
thePhilippine Overseas Employment
Administration(POEA),
the Philippines is the world’s main supplier of seamen since 1987, making the
Philippines the manning capital of the world. According to theDepartment of Labor and Employmentof the Philippines, around 229,000
Filipino seamen were on board merchant shipping vessels around the world at any
given time, the figure showed that Filipino seamen comprised more than 25
percent of 1.5 million mariners worldwide, the "single biggest nationality
bloc" in the shipping industry. In 2007, according to the POEA, there were
1,157 seamen (869 in 2006) from the Philippines who had been employed by
registered or accredited manning agencies.

In 2007, the
figure of Filipino seamen overseas was 226,900. Included in the total -
according to job function - 31,818 were designated or ranked as seamen; 19,491
as oilers; 17,355 as ordinary seamen; 7,810 as mess men; 7,778 as chief cooks;
7,737 asbosuns; 7,056 as thirdengineers; 6,599 third mates; and 6,388 as
waiters. Based on the type of ship, 47,782 Filipino seamen were on board
passenger-type vessels; 42,356 were on bulk carriers; 31,983 were on container
ships; 25,011 were on tankers; 14, 462 were on oil or product tankers; 10,754
were on general cargo ships; 7,502 were on chemical tankers; 6,610 were on
tugboats; 5,742 were on pure car carriers; and 3,471 were on gas tankers.

Another
highlight of the “The Day of Seafarers
Expo” is the first Marino Idol
where Filipino Seafarers get to compete with unique competition.

The Day of Seafarers Expo is a partnership event of LUSWELF, United Filipino Seafarers (UFS)
and Exlink Management and Marketing Services Corp. (Exlinkevents) – Business Events
Organizer.

The Day of Seafarers Expo is the first event of a series of
event that will take place in Manila in order to serve the needs of the Filipino
Seafarers.

For more information
to be a partner or sponsor of the event you may call tel. no. 643-3887 | 0920-9814376
or email info@exlinkevents.com.

Let us face it getting great speakers is the heart of how to
make your conference or seminar a resounding success in the eyes of your
delegates.However, as an event organizer, there are times that
we overlook this element, leaving a bitter taste in our mouth, or a big regret
in our hearts.

Most of the times, these happen when we are blinded and fell
in love with the impressive curriculum vitae that the speakers have.

We Neglect the fact that there is a big difference of the knowledge accumulated by the speaker, and the speaking performance he can implement in front of the audience.

Here are five qualities that you should look for in
selecting speakers in your next conference or seminar:

1. Energetic

Conference speakers are no different from musicians or
theater actors - they are performers.

As performers, your speakers should have the energy in
delivering their talks. This energy will attract positive reactions to your
delegates. I was a witness as to how energetic speakers affected tremendously
the interest and enthusiasm of the delegates toward the subject matter being
discussed.

It is amazing how an energetic speaker changes the
temperature of the room from cold (gloomy) to warm (bright).

2. Prepared

No matter how knowledgeable your speakers are if they are
not prepared to deliver their piece or they do not have learning aids with them
like power point presentations their talk time and face time with the delegates
are useless.

Worst, unprepared speakers create irate delegates. Delegates
feel the event organizer robs them; the big reason is that conference fees are
sometimes pricey. Delegates do not deserve to pay a high price just to get
a lousy speaker.

I recall an incident in one of my conferences wherein one of
my speaker is an expert but came unprepared in discussing the topic assigned to
him, I feel bad for my guests. From that moment on I swear to myself to be
meticulous and clear to my invited speakers that they have to be prepared
during the actual event.

3. Clear and Precise

Sometimes some speakers that are experts in their field are
way beyond the delegates’ comprehension. Some sounds Greek and this is a bad
idea. No matter how brilliant the speaker is, his main goal never change, that
is to communicate clearly and precisely the lessons of his subject matter.

In one conference I attended, I was forced to get out of the
conference area and stay in one of the lobby sofa even if the topic is
interesting, the culprit? You are right, the speaker is throwing jargons that
are hard to comprehend. I felt during that moment that he is wasting my time, so
might as well do networking activities rather than listen to him.

4. Engaging

An engaging speaker is a speaker that solicits delegate
participation. This engagement is important, the speaker needs to connect with
the delegates. The best way to connect is to engage delegates by asking them questions
or soliciting their advice in some situations to illustrate better the lessons
of a particular concept.

Speaker Engagement with delegates allows the speaker to be
linked with the delegates’ intellectual and emotional need in the conference.

As one of my speakers says, “if the delegates are participating, I know that I am connected with them”.

5. Story Teller

Great speakers tell stories. Stories help delegates
understand better the concepts being discussed. We as delegates have in our DNA
a better appreciation of ideas if it is presented to us thru great and
remarkable stories.

In all conferences and seminars that I have attended,
speakers with great stories in their presentations are speakers that are able
to earn a space in my heart and mind. For me, speakers that are great
storytellers deserve louder applause. Best of all, they deserve my time and
effort. I patiently wait in line to approach them to get their autographs and take picture with them - this my way of saying I am satisfied and I respect them.

In this line, if I see that delegates, in my organized event
or conferences, are running to have a picture with one of my speakers, or get an
autograph of these speakers, I am already assured that I have done my part.

More importantly, I am confident that running
the same type of event or conference has a greater chance of success.

Dear Venue Operators we have been friends for a
long time. We have created great events together. However, we can still improve
our partnerships, but first let me tell you some of my observations that you
can make some improvements.

1.Make Your Venue Cooler

If you are a hotel or a first class venue,
ensure that you can make your venue cool. It is hard to enjoy the night or
event if we are all sweating inside our business suits. Always try to imagine
and add in your computation the body heat that will be added inside the venue.

Some venue operators and ventilation experts
failed to see this; they compute the room’s need for air condition units
without adding the potential guests that will use the venue. Their failure
destroys their reputation and the possibility of repeat business.

2.Deliver the Food that We Order

Funny that the food served during the taste
tests is very different to the food you are serving in the actual event. It
ruins the event, and makes us dissatisfied. Always ensure that what you remain
true to this area. Please do not shortchange us; we are paying for what our
guests and we are eating. Make us happy the stomach is closer to our hearts.

3.Train Your Staff the Proper Protocols

You are in the service industry it is your job
to produce trained staff competent to face the questions and needs of the
guests. This is a minimum requirement, so please train them to meet this
minimum requirement. Otherwise, you do not have the right to run a venue and be
part of the hospitality industry.

4.Do Not Leave Us During Difficult Situations

If you failed to deliver your promises
and because the problem that occurred points towards your shortcomings do not
leave us in the middle of irate guests. As much as we are experts in our field,
we are inside your venue, we cannot control how you will deliver the other
elements of our events and if you failed in your delivery, causing
dissatisfaction to our guests be brave enough to do customer recovery hand in
hand with us.

By doing this, we might use you again. But
ignore this, you do not only lose us, we spread the news to our industry and
that is bad business for you.

5.Acknowledge Immediately Your Shortcomings

This might be a very bitter pill to swallow but
you must. If you failed to deliver what you promised and it caused misery to event organizers like us, we expect you to apologise during the actual event.
Please do not smile while you staff are fumbling in front of our very eyes, and
while the eyes of some of our guests are starting to look like fierce tigers.
Do not make excuses our event is planned a long time ago, like other events
on-going on your venue that coincide in our event. You failed to plan, so be
brave and fast in admitting your mistakes and apologize to us.

In addition, you must do some actions that will
make us feel that you are sincere in your apologies.

Again, you are in the hospitality industry, you
are rated on the way you deliver services. Experience never matter here, be lax
in a day and you will suffer the consequence. You become incompetent in a day,
despite the fact that you have years of experience in this industry.

The rule is very clear in events management and
hospitality industry: “You are only as good as your last performance.” So
always be ready all the time.